Curated playlist

American male voice actors

Rob PaulsenRob Paulsen was the voice in the first Got Milk? radio spot in 1993. The joke had a man's mouth full of peanut butter.
Christopher WalkenTo look gaunt for The Deer Hunter, Christopher Walken ate only bananas, water and rice for a month.
Brian T. DelaneyBrian T. Delaney voiced Scarecrow on Batman Unlimited and the male Sole Survivor in Fallout 4.
Fred TatascioreAs of March 2, 2017, no one had voiced more superhero video game characters than Fred Tatasciore.
Matt DamonMatt Damon once turned down 10 percent of the profits from Avatar, a film that went on to become the most successful of all time. Director James Cameron made the offer while Damon was still working on the Bourne films, and Damon did not…
Greg EaglesGreg Eagles voiced Death as a Jamaican-accented scythe-carrier named Grim. He began in 2001 on Grim and Evil.
Michael Patrick McGillMichael Patrick McGill appeared as Tommy in 91 episodes of Shameless from 2011 to 2021.
Frank SinatraFrank Sinatra was dropped by his record label in 1952. A movie role then brought him back to the top.
Josh BrolinJosh Brolin was trading stocks full time in 2006 when he booked the lead role in the Coen brothers' Academy Award-winning film No Country for Old Men. The film became both a critical and a commercial success. Brolin is an American actor…
Martin ScorseseMartin Scorsese's love of movies began because asthma kept him out of games.
Woody AllenWoody Allen failed a film production course at New York University, then went on to direct Annie Hall.
LeBron JamesLeBron James led Cleveland back from a 3-1 Finals deficit, a first in NBA history. It ended a 52-year title wait.
Christian BaleChristian Bale once lived on black coffee, an apple and a can of tuna each day. The English actor began that regimen with nothing but cigarettes and whiskey. By the end he had lost 63 lb and weighed 121 lb. The script for the psychological…
Travis WillinghamAt six feet four inches, Travis Willingham kept losing on-camera acting parts. His agent steered him back to voice work.
Orson WellesOrson Welles burned ten reels of his own Don Quixote film. He felt the 1969 Moon landings made its ending obsolete.
Adam SandlerAdam Sandler once made a Western comedy that critics almost universally panned. On the 6th of January 2016, Netflix announced that the film, The Ridiculous 6, had been watched more times in thirty days than any other movie in the service's…
Brad PittBrad Pitt left the University of Missouri two weeks short of completing the coursework for his degree. As graduation approached, he did not feel ready to settle down. He loved films, which he once called "a portal into different worlds for…
David LynchDavid Lynch began as a painter who just wanted his canvases to move. That wish led him to film.
Matthew McConaugheyMatthew McConaughey, the American actor, won the part that launched his career by walking up to a stranger in a hotel bar. At the time he was a film student at the University of Texas in Austin. He had gone out with his girlfriend to the…
Matt HullumMatt Hullum voices Sarge in the online series Red vs. Blue. He also co-founded the company behind it, Rooster Teeth.
James StewartJames Stewart gave his Oscar to his father for the shop window.
Samuel L. JacksonSamuel L. Jackson learned to cope with a childhood stutter by pretending to be other people.
Harrison FordHarrison Ford got Han Solo after reading lines for other actors' auditions. George Lucas slowly decided he wanted Ford.
Stephen ColbertAt a 2006 dinner, Stephen Colbert roasted President Bush to a cold room. His show's ratings jumped 37% the next week.
Ben StillerBen Stiller's films have grossed more than $2.6 billion in Canada and the United States, an average of $79 million per film. Behind that figure stands Benjamin Edward Meara Stiller, an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is known…
Charlie SheenCharlie Sheen was the highest-paid actor on television in 2010, earning US$1.8 million for every episode of the sitcom Two and a Half Men. He had been born Carlos Irwin Estévez, and he grew up in a household where acting was the family…
Nicolas CageNicolas Cage was 15 years old when he told his uncle, the director Francis Ford Coppola, "I'll show you acting." He wanted a screen test. What he got was silence in the car. His uncle had already directed Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Gene…
Justin TimberlakeJustin Timberlake was 11 years old when he appeared on the television show Star Search and sang country songs under the name Justin Randall. The boy from Memphis, Tennessee would one day be dubbed the Prince of Pop. Billboard would name…
Mel BrooksMel Brooks was 14 years old when he climbed onto a diving board at the Butler Lodge, a second-rate hotel in the Borscht Belt. He worked there as a pool-side tummler, an entertainer hired to keep the guests amused. On this day he wore a…
Jim HensonJim Henson made the first Kermit from a halved table tennis ball and his mother's old coat.
Chris Evans (actor)Chris Evans is an American actor whose leading roles have brought in $11.4 billion at the worldwide box office. That total places him among the highest-grossing film stars of all time. It also made him one of the highest-paid actors in the…
Sylvester StalloneSylvester Stallone has said that he once slept for three weeks in the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City. Decades later, he is one of only two actors in history, alongside Harrison Ford, to have starred in a box-office number one…
Robert DuvallRobert Duvall died at his farm in Middleburg, Virginia, on the 15th of February 2026, at the age of 95. His wife, Luciana Pedraza, announced his death in a public statement. He had worked for seven decades, and on screen he rarely seemed…
Johnny DeppJohnny Depp, the American actor, musician and filmmaker, saw his film Jeanne du Barry open the 2023 Cannes Film Festival to a standing ovation that lasted seven minutes. Playing King Louis XV, he was acting in French for the first time.…
Martin SheenMartin Sheen was born Ramón Gerard Antonio Estévez. In a 2009 speech at Oxford University, he said he had been arrested 66 times. The human rights activist Craig Kielburger gave that tally a memorable comparison. He said Sheen had "a rap…
Michael DouglasMichael Douglas won a Best Picture Oscar before he was a star. He produced One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
Tom HanksTom Hanks lost 35 pounds to play a dying lawyer in Philadelphia. He thinned his hair and learned to walk differently.
Johnny CashJohnny Cash never served a prison sentence. He was jailed seven times, one night each.
Ralph BakshiRalph Bakshi sold CBS a show it already owned. CBS had acquired the Terrytoons library in 1955 and forgotten it.
Will SmithWill Smith turned down the lead role in The Matrix to make Wild Wild West. He later called that choice a mistake.
Jake GyllenhaalJake Gyllenhaal, the American actor born on the 19th of December 1980, came close to playing two of the best-known superheroes in film. In 2003 he auditioned for Batman Begins and nearly won the part, which went to Christian Bale. A year…
Denzel WashingtonIn 2025, on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the actor Denzel Washington said that the emphasis in his first name belongs on the first syllable. His mother had moved it to the second syllable so that young Denzel would answer to her call and not his…
Ryan ReynoldsRyan Reynolds gave up his usual fee so the Deadpool film would get made.
Sam RockwellSam Rockwell won an Oscar for playing a racist, bullying police deputy. He delivered burritos by bicycle first.
Griffin McElroyA millipede in West Virginia's hills is named after Griffin McElroy's family.
Ken BurnsKen Burns was nearly nine when neighbors handed his family six twenty-dollar bills.
Tom CruiseTom Cruise attended fifteen schools in fourteen years. He was born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV on the 3rd of July 1962 in Syracuse, New York. Today he is an American actor and film producer, and his career has now run for forty-five years. A…
Bruce WillisBruce Willis received the 2,321st star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on the 16th of October 2006. It sits at 6915 Hollywood Boulevard. At the reception, he told the crowd he used to come down and look at the stars. Then came the…
Michael B. JordanMichael B. Jordan won the Academy Award for Best Actor for Sinners, a 2025 period horror film in which he played twin brothers. The win made him the seventh Black performer in history to take an Oscar in a lead acting category. It is a…
Philip Seymour HoffmanPhilip Seymour Hoffman was an American actor whose career the director Joel Schumacher summed up in 2000 with bad news and good news. Schumacher put it this way: "The bad news is that Philip won't be a $25-million star. The good news is…